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 Dr.
Lynn is a geriatrician and is the Director of The Center
to Improve Care of the Dying at RAND. The Center is a multi-disciplinary
center for research and education aimed at improving the
care of seriously ill persons. The Center's faculty has
recently authored three books. Improving Care at the
End of Life: A Sourcebook for Managers and Clinicians, The
Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious
Illness (Oxford University Press and www.medicaring.org),
and Promises to Keep,
which provides stories of successful provider organizations,
and guidance for becoming involved in upcoming debates over
public policy. Dr. Lynn was Project Director of the President's
Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine
and Biomedical and Behavioral Research and principal writer
of that Commission's book, Deciding to Forego Life-Sustaining
Treatment. Dr. Lynn was Co-Director of SUPPORT, the
Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes
and Risks of Treatments. SUPPORT studied the course of illness
and treatment for ten thousand seriously ill hospitalized
persons and implemented an intervention to improve decision-making
and produced more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Dr. Lynn is a former medical director of The Washington
Home and Hospice of Washington. She was elected to the Institute
of Medicine in 1996. She also served as Chair for two Breakthrough
Collaboratives to Improve End-of-Life Care, in conjunction
with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. These collaboratives
supported a diverse set of almost one hundred health care
provider institutions, most of which accomplished rapid
quality improvement in their own settings. She has written
book chapters in many geriatrics textbooks as well as articles
in lay and professional journals. She speaks frequently
to groups concerning how to encourage meaningful lives for
persons with severe illness and how to measure quality of
end-of-life services. The print and broadcast media often
request Dr. Lynn's comments on issues such as Medicare reform
proposals, care at the end of life, and physician-assisted
suicide. In addition, Dr. Lynn is president of the public
interest organization, Americans for Better Care of the
Dying (ABCD). ABCD is a non-profit organization that promotes
public understanding and coalitions across organizations
to improve end of life care.
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